poetry

August First

August First

August sneaks up
just when you feel you’re
safely in the thick of summer
lazing through July
but school and structure
are only a breath away

the days are getting shorter
I feel it tonight
but with the dark
comes candlelight’s glow
and the warmth of the cheery lanterns
strung overhead

these are the days when
I would take my new school shoes
out of their cardboard box
admire them and smell the stiff leather
then close them back in the closet
prepared to suck whatever juice summer had left
from that popsicle quickly losing its color and tang
going ice-grey

poetry

September: Equinox

September: Equinox

an equinox with no pull of fall
this year there’ll be no
slowing-down shedding-time
no long inward-turning impulse

pictures of home bring yellow and reds
but more the sense we’re moving
at a different rate
to a different clock
not just 13 hours ahead
we’re in a time without seasons
without the rhythms our bodies know
chasing summer
while the people we love
watch for frost